Protesters claim victory against harsher refugee rules

Along with other events, my June 23 feature story on how the Conservatives’ tough new changes to refugee laws were pressing religious groups to do even more for refugees may have had some impact on legislation.

While I wrote about the worries of churches and mosques, a few other media outlets had been picking up on protests from health professionals. Together the critics were trying to put heat on the government to back out of its new measures, which seemed poised to remove extended medical benefits for most refugees in their first year in Canada.

But, in what many protestors say is climbdown for the Conservatives, the federal government quietly softened their proposed changes last Friday, just before they the harsher new rules were to take effect. The media has slowly picked up on what has happened, but the government is not really admitting it backtracked.

“The longtime director of Immigration Services Society of B.C., Chris Friesen, predicts the government’s harder-line approach to refugees will simply lead to more “being left in the camps.”

“Friesen says cuts to extended health benefits for first-year refugees, scheduled to begin June 30, will further scare religious groups away from taking more responsibility for often-ailing new arrivals.

“The government’s removal of nearly all medication benefits is one of many designed to discourage so-called “bogus” refugees from coming to Canada to exploit free social assistance. On June 18, health care workers staged nationwide protests, including in Vancouver, opposing the cuts.

“Immigration minister Jason Kenney explained in a letter to Friesen that he is trying to “ensure fairness for Canadians, the majority of whom do not have government-funded coverage of the full cost of medications, assisted devices and the like.”